Monday, January 26, 2015

Today's prompt was great! I found this quote online and I had to used it in my art today. Thought about making an art journal page, but baby Aaliyah was up and about all day... I really lived the result!

This lesson was my favorite so far. It did touched deep in my heart. It made me reflect on things and action I am holding back, fears I am not supposed to have and insecurities that are keeping me down somehow. It also made me think about letting go of these things a flourish as an artist and a woman. I lived everything about today's lesson!

Bianca and I are friends for as long as can remember. We were born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. But I moved to Trinidad & Tobago in Caribbean five years ago. She comes or I go at least once a year... This page shows a bit of what we talk every time we see each other. We have the most important conversations of our lives over a cup of coffee. That is our untold code for: "ok, this is serious". I am happy to have her in my life and I am happy to share this with you all.

This prompt was my favorite so far for Journal 52. I new exactly what I wanted to do and the products I wanted to use. After gessoing the page, I blended three color: Cadmium Red deep, Cadmium orange and Medium yellow (all Liquitex Basics), then I used black gesso through the deer stencil and used black gesso to create the ground. Then, I finished with sme grass and wild flower stamps and the quote by Donna Downey..

Prompt: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way . . . “ - Georgia O’Keeffe

In this page, I started by applying gesso. Then, I cut up stripes of cardstock and glued them on the center of my layout. The, I used SILKS acrylic paint and Quin, Nickel Azo gold, and made it drip. Once that was dry, I started working on my butterfly: First, I sketched it with a black Col-erase pencil in a mixed media sheet of paper, the, went over he whole butterfly with Faber-Castell Pitt pens with different nibs. And to finish my butterfly, I used watercolor paints in rainbow order and added white to make some highlights. I, then typed and printed the quote, distressed it a little bit and added a paper doily. To finish my page, I uesd distress ink in black soot through a stencil.

This one took me a while to finish, because I had to draw the mermaid, but it was totally worth it in the end. I used Tim Holtz's tissue paper in the background and gessoed over it. I sketched my mermaid using a black Col-erase pencil. To color it, I used Caran D'ache Neo Color II and Derwent Soft Core pencils, I finished the details with Verithin pencils and Micca flakes by Golden. In the background I used Caran D'ache Neo Color II again in 3 shades of blue. Then I used a text stamp and Blue Memento ink through a swirl stencil. To finish, I wrote my little sentiment.

Okay so this one deserves an explanation... My husband works offshore in a 28x28 days rotation, which means he works for 28 days and stays home for 28 days). Since we were dating we had this thing when we hang up the phone. He would say: "I love you, Choco." ( as in chocolate because of the color of my skin) And I would say: "I love you more, baby..." And he would reply: "I love you morer!". That's why I chose that sentence. We still do that... It's kind of our thing... Phone calls, emails or even when he is jut going out...I had a great time on this page... I would probably change a thing or two, but I will stick to it.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

I was introduced to this lovely art community led by Tiare Smith called Scraps of Color. The community is filled with awesome art and artsy people. One the projects there is called "Embrace your art 365 2015": it is a daily prompt based art journaling tool, in which every Monday, Tiare will announce on her blog the prompts for next 7 days, you can interpret the prompt as you wish and you don't have to do a journal page, you can choose any format you want. I am doing this one on 6x4 cards. Here is my first one:

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

So for week 2 I had a great time with all my projects... Being involved with so much art is pushing me to find out my limits, helping me discover what challenges me and what makes me grow in my art and I am loving it all!

Documented Life Project

January theme: the blank page and how to face it

Art challenge: Gesso

Prompt: the beginning is always today

I used super heavy gesso through a stencil to create a resist when I used the Dylusions sprays. Then had my fun with my birds! They are the scribbly birds stamp by Dina Wakley.

I created my background with acrylic paint lime green and opaque yellow, sprayed black homemade spray ( 50% paint, 25% airbrush medium and 25% water) through an alphabet stencil. I made a bird mask and used to block the background when I used black gesso. And finally the sentiment was written in black and white paint pen as well as the border.

Pretty much the same technique as DLP. I just added modeling paste through a scribble stencil. Because I used Dylusions sprays, the modeling paste picked up the color. At the end I cut the butterfly and sentiment, and glued them to the tag.

I started this one by applying a coat of gesso and using acrylic paint in burnt umber and quin. Nickel azo gold. I used my homemade black spray paint through a damask stencil and used a alphabet stamp to finish the background. The sentiment is a stamp by Donna Downey that I distressed the edges and glued with some ephemera. To finish the page I used a few rub ons.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Shame on me for taking so long to share my art progress so far in 2015... But here we go!

Life Book: Week 1 - Beacon of Light

This project was very important to me! I really didn't know it would turn out this nice... One: because I had to draw, and I thought I wasn't go at it, but I recently found out that I am learning pretty well... I mainly used Watersoluable crayons and Tombow markers. The shiny detail on the rays is micca flakes.

This year, Krazy Island Studios have a University. It is a place you can find all the journaling prompts from last yer and the videos, as well as all the other classes Claudia Rossi, Peta Thompson and Gina Ahrens teach.

For this prompt, I decided to do something completely different the class Gina Ahrens taught us. Her class was more doodling in ink... Very creative and totally hard for me because I can't doodle! Believe me, I can't...

I used book page for collage, acrylic paint, stamps, spray through a stencil and a fine line bottle. I had fun with this one!

Saturday, January 10, 2015

As this is my first post of the New Year, I would like to list the art projects I plan to take part in 2015. Some of you know that I am quite new to art, but this past year I have been actively involved with it since June, and I am having a blast! 2014 was a year of observation, where I really took in all the mixed media art out there. I joined in ATCsforall.com and met some wonderful people! I didn't really joined any classes, per se; except for 48 week with Donna Downey, but I have not finished it.

So, for this year I have decided to take on the mission of making art everyday. Art makes me happy and a lot less stressed with the whole life events, it calms me down and it gives me he chance to unwind, to detox the negativity that sometimes, we all have to deal with. Art also permits me to get in contact with my most intimate feelings... Art heals!